Morristown's train station is shown in this file photo.Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger

An appeals panel today upheld the conviction of a Morristown man who stole a woman’s cell phone and then fought with police as they arrested him.

Victor R. Simpson – who in 2010 was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the 2008 robbery under the “No Early Release Act”– claimed the trial court erred in allowing jurors to consider evidence of the victim identifying him through a suggestive “showup” process without first determining its reliability.

Simpson robbed Christina Bieg as she left her job in Morristown and was walking to the train station while talking on her cell phone , authorities said. He asked her for a cigarette, then followed her while continuing ask for one and attempting to get her attention. Then he choked her, “at one point lifting her off the ground,” according to court documents. Simpson grabbed her cell phone and was chased by bystanders, who saw him run into the Olyphant Drive home where he lived with his family.

Police apprehended Simpson as he hid in a closet and brought Bieg to the house to identify him, where she saw him attempting to fight police while in handcuffs. Because she couldn’t see his face, police raised his head and shined a spotlight on him, authorities said.

Simpson, 35, claimed that process was unfair because Bieg knew the assailant had fled into the house, he was in handcuffs and was illuminated by the spotlight.

Although the judges acknowledged such identifications are often “inherently suggestive,” they said there was “more than ample” evidence to warrant its admissibility.

“Bieg had ample opportunity to view defendant at the time of the crime,” they wrote, noting that he had stood near her and tried to get her attention several times. The judges also noted that Bieg eliminated other potential suspects the police showed her.

“We conclude that no error occurred that was sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt as to whether the jury reached a result it otherwise not have reached,” the judges wrote.

The judges also dismissed Simpson’s arguments that his conviction should be overturned because police did not record the details of the identification; that his attorney was incompetent; and that a juror was improperly excused from his case during deliberations.